Finally's Apprentice Guide

Contents

The Apprentice V2.0

So you're having trouble deciding on what to name your Apprentice? Can't figure out if its a boy or girl? Then you've come to the right place. Here is a simple guide to teach you the basics of the class. (He's a boy FYI)

Builds

How should I build my Apprentice?
The Apprentice by far has the most powerful towers in the game, they do impressive damage and is one of 2 characters (in version 2.0) that can build physical towers. Much like the Squire, there are three typical builds:

Tower Build - All points in tower stats

Pros:

Impressive tower damage

All towers are ranged except the barricade

Cons:

Leaves the apprentice with low health

Monsters can be resistant to the towers elements

DPS Build - All points in character stats

Pros:

Weapons are ranged

High level weapons do high damage and can have multiple projectiles

Cons:

Towers will not do as much damage

Lack of a good barrier makes soloing harder

Hybrid Build - Mix of the two, most common

Pros:

Good for public team games

Able to use both their weapon and towers efficiently

Cons:

Not specialized

Towers will lack maximum damage if they are needed

Hero will lack maximum damage if he is needed

Tower Breakdown

The Magic tower is the very first tower available to the Apprentice and has a low cost to summon. The Apprentice is able to build many of these towers all over the map covering many points. These make for good early towers or support for higher level towers as monsters do not have elemental resistance to them. A balanced tower defense should include a few Magic towers covering the map. Magic Missile towers can be used as support for other towers as it doesn't have any element affiliation. They also make great filler towers when placed at key points or near the crystal.
Cost: 3 Tower Points 40 Mana

The Magic Blockade is a great tower to fill out a map when you want to make Defense Units due to being only 1DU. Although, this tower is quite basic in that it is something mobs will walk into and attack. That is pretty much the extent of it. Good for solo Apprentice runs, the Magic Blockade is bested by a few Squire towers that do much more than block paths. The Magic Blockades are very good against elemental resistant monsters as it steals their resistance, exposing them to all the elements.

The Fire tower is the second tower the Apprentice has access to. This tower does high damage but fires at a slow rate. The best part of the Fire tower is that each attack does splash damage on the area of impact, making up for the slow rate of fire. I would advise against building only fireball towers since many of the resistance monsters have fire resistance, negating any damage. These are best accompanied by other Apprentice or Squire towers.

By far the most unique tower in the Apprentice's arsenal, the Lighting tower can be quite impressive. This is the only tower with 360 degree coverage and it is able to hit multiple monsters with its chain lighting attacks. The Lighting tower does low-medium damage that is compensated by hitting many monsters. The uses for this tower are limited currently, as it is rare to have more than a few monsters in each lane. This tower is best used to cover a large area or on the PC version when it gets released as there will be many more monsters each wave.

A very rarely used tower, the Deadly Striker does impressive damage at a large cost. The DS tower will shoot through walls and has the longest range of any tower in the game currently. The down side to this tower is the extremely large charge up time and lack of control. The tower, although powerful, will tend to attack the closest monster rather than the strongest one. This will cause its 1k+ damage to be wasted on a 100 hp monster. Best used before bosses, never more than one or 2 at a time.

Cost: 8 Defense Units 150 Mana

Apprentice Skills

This skill allows the Apprentice to summon towers faster or activate Mana Bomb in less than a second. Overcharge is quite useful in two situations. The first being when monsters break through the maps barricades and the crystal is in danger of being damaged. The Apprentice can setup a defensive area in quite a short time using this skill. The second situation is when using Mana Bomb around monsters. This skill reduces the casting time saving the player precious seconds.

Mana Bomb is a large range aoe attack centered from the Apprentice. The skill requires a few seconds to charge before unleashing its devastating damage. The cost of the skill is well worth using, but only in emergencies or when mana is plentiful. Mana is always best used on towers first, then skills.

200 Mana per use

Apprentice Weapons

The Apprentice can equip Staffs and Clubs. Clubs are a bit rare to find with decent stats so most players will use staffs. One thing to watch for is how many additional projectiles the weapon has. More projectiles means more damage and more monsters hit per attack. In the later levels it is necessary to have +3 or more projectiles if the player intends to use their attacks effectively.

Apprentice Stats

This stat increases the Apprentice's Health increasing his overall survivability. Every Apprentice should invest a few points in this stat as they are rather squishy. Health is an important stat to increase as the player levels. New maps and harder difficulties require the Apprentice to need more health. (50 max)

Player Damage

Placing points in Player Damage increase the damage of each attack done by the player. This stat is not useful for tower builds and is only good for a DPS build. This should be one of the last stats to max due to weapons being the major source of damage. (50 max)

Player Speed

This stat increases the players movement speed. Maxing this stat is essential for all classes but maxing should be put off until later levels. A few points early into player speed will allow the player to cross the max relatively fast. Items can be used to cover player speed. (35 max)

Player Casting Speed

This stat increases the rate at which the player creates and repairs towers. This is a good skill to place points in if the player is doing a Tower build otherwise the points can be better placed elsewhere. The Apprentice's towers have relatively low health and being able to rebuild them quickly is needed. A tower build Apprentice should also focus on repairing all towers. The final points of a DPS build can be placed here to help repair and upgrade towers on the player's down time. (50 max)

Tower Health

This stat increases the health of all the towers. Apprentice towers have low health so upgrading this stat is needed if the player intends to play on Hard/Insane. (50 max)

Tower Damage

Tower damages increases the damage of all Apprentice towers. This is a good skill to max if the player is going for a tower or hybrid build. The increases from maxing this stat are well worth upgrading early. The more damage the player's towers do, the less likely the towers are to get damaged and need repairs. (60 max)

Tower Aoe Range

This stat increase the range of towers aoe attacks. This is important to invest in as the range of towers increases with each point although, other stats like damage and attack speed should come first.. More range = more damage over time. This stat is best left until higher levels due to already large range of towers. (60 max)

Tower Attack Speed

Tower Attack Speed increases the attack rate of all Apprentice towers. This is an important skill to max if the player is going for a tower or hybrid build as the damage output of each tower is greatly increased. This should be maxed if the player intends to do a Tower build. (60 max)

Solo Strategies

The Apprentice is fairly easy to solo with.The easy way to plow through most levels with him is to simple place one barrier at a choke point where enemies will have to destroy it before moving on.Behind the barrier place a Magic Missile Tower or, as an alternative, off to the side still covered behind the barrier.This stops the enemies and allows the tower to go to work.A Fire Ball Tower can do massive AOE damage while enemies are stacked up.

Properly placed barriers can help bring serious destruction.Another plus to the towers is the range, not just reach out but they can be placed on a higher level and fire down upon enemies giving them extra protection.These two simple tricks can make any long fight easier.

Note that during boss battles towers will not attack map objects.

Multiplayer Strategies

When playing as part of a team, it can be easy to forget that you share defense units with your team. Focus on upgrading towers instead of massing them which takes up defense units that could be more useful elsewhere.

Lightning and fireball towers paired together will help slow down your enemies and hit more enemies per attack. Pairing the two towers will also help combat damage type resistances, as will setting up magic blockades.

Don't forget to run out in front of the towers to collect mana. Just be quick, and don't let the squires and monks steal all your mana!